Importance

Medicine is in its core a practical study. The academic part of medicine is merely a supplement to medical practice. As a general rule, the marks you get out of practical exams are fairly easy and in most cases you can obtain the full mark with relatively less effort. That's why you should take care of attending practical sessions.

What do you study in Practical Sessions ?

Anatomy
Human cadavers are dissected and you see and learn how to identify different body components, muscles, nerves, vessels, etc. You should aquaint yourself to the natural difference among human beings as well as anomalies. Take care that the samples that you see in the exams may not be fresh or well preserved.

Physiology
You will make some experiments using frogs' hearts and muscles, you wil also do some experiments on your own blood. You will learn how to measure blood pressure and hear heart sounds as well as how to interprete an ECG.

Biochmistry
During Biochemstry practical sessions you will learn how to identify and differentiate between unknown subtances given to you (carbohydrates, proteins, etc) with the help of a set of experiments. The aim of the sessions is to learn the rules and basics of working in a lab. The end-of-year exam is easy since it is an open-book exam and you will not memorize the experiments, you will only apply your skills in making them.

Histology
Histology sections compose of a prelab in which you learn how to draw different microscopic sections, then comes the lab in which you learn how to identifythem using a microscope.
You must draw all the sections you learn in a copybook, and better not leave it to the end of the year or it will become a big load. In the practical exam, you will have some slides to identify as well as a major slide to identify and draw.